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Comments in my Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics collection consisting of religious proselytizing, tinfoil hat / chemtrail / 'there was no moon landing' / 'vaccination leads to autism' and other unsubstantiated conspiracy nonsense will be deleted on sight. I block enthusiastically. Unfollow this collection if you don't agree, or are being probed by aliens or microwaved by NASA (or the other way around).﻿

In the face of people who would rather shove us back in the closet or even incarcerate and kill us, pride parades celebrate our right to fucking exist at all, and live our lives the way we want. Now that this right to exist is not questioned anymore pride parades lose a lot of their meaning and get de-politicized. They still are a celebration of humanity in all its colours and all its forms of expression. Or rather they should be.﻿

~ Good Thinking Investigates: Palmistry (Part 3) ~ :: In our previous readings with a palm reader, our volunteers from the Merseyside Skeptics Society were given advice they felt was misleading and irresponsible. Perhaps even worse, each of our readings began to sound eerily familiar, as demonstrated by this compilation of our clips from the three visits to the same psychic by different investigators… Clearly it seemed our volunteers’ lives were alarmingly similar. What would happen if a fourth investigator visited a second palmist in the same booth – the daughter of the previous palmist? :: #woo#superstition﻿

~ Good Thinking Investigates: Palmistry (Part 1) ~ :: Palm readers have operated in seaside towns across the country for many years. Many people put their trust (and hand over considerable amounts of money) to psychics – especially in times of need. In the absence of any proof that palmists have any ability to accurately advise on the future, we wanted to find out whether that trust was well-placed, so we visited a palm reader in Blackpool… We feel our investigator was pressured into paying for a more expensive reading than he was comfortable with, paying £30 for a reading which lasted just 5 minutes. Other readings on offer cost as much as £50 and even £100. The reading we received was inaccurate, vague and included 22 questions in under 5 minutes. The palmist showed no sign of the supernatural insight she claimed to be able to provide, and left us concerned that a vulnerable customer could be exploited. We contacted the psychic to share our investigations and our concerns, but she declined to comment. :: #woo#superstition﻿

~ Trump’s presidential bid draws scorn and bemusement in Europe ~ [The Raw Story] :: With his distressed hairstyle, voluptuous female companions and love of the media spotlight, U.S. tycoon Donald Trump is no stranger to people on this side of the Atlantic. But his bid to become president of the United States has got people scratching their heads. Seen by many as a kind of cartoon character despite his business successes, “The Donald” has baffled and angered in equal measure with a series of controversial comments. The fact that polls show him leading the race to be the Republican Party’s nominee for the U.S. presidential election in November 2016 only adds to the bafflement. Writing in the Times, columnist Justin Webb described Trump’s presidential bid as a “madcap entry”: "Americans are deeply angry with politics and politicians and Donald Trump is one of the results. He cannot be opposed successfully – he has to be carefully negotiated around, as if he were a motorway accident.” :: #politics﻿

Anecdotally, I've heard (read? can't recall) somewhere that some think Trump has no expectations whatsoever to become president and that the entire purpose of him running for President is, as was very, very evident at his announcement speech, to establish to everyone that he really is rich.

Trump makes a lot of his money selling his name. Prior to all this election hoopla, people have long been questioning whether or not Trump actually has any significant amounts of money. What better public stage to demonstrate that he is rich than via an announcement that he is running for president?

The thought is that he never expected to win the presidency (or even the RNC candidate race) from the outset, but that he will come out of it in a much better position to make more money.

~ Queen Bees Vaccinate All of Their Babies ~ [Discovery News] :: Bee babies enter the world naturally vaccinated, according to a new study that found queen bees inoculate all of their young. The scientists learned how queen bees manage this feat, and plan to replicate it in future with the hope of boosting bee immunity even more. The findings appear today in the journal PLOS Pathogens. The researchers explained that, in a honeybee colony, the queen rarely leaves the nest, so worker bees must bring food to her. Forager bees gather pollen and nectar, but in doing so, gather pathogens in the environment too. The whole mix, bacteria and all, is used back at the hive to create royal jelly, which the queen ingests. Once consumed, the bacteria are digested in her gut and wind up stored in the queen’s “fat body,” which is an organ similar to a liver. Pieces of the bacteria are then bound to a protein called vitellogenin, and are carried via blood to the developing eggs. Because of this, bee babies enter the world vaccinated. The simple brilliance of the process is that the bees are specifically safeguarded against diseases present in their own environment. :: #biology#vaccination﻿

~ Firefighters Pay it Forward Big Time After Waitress With Heart of Gold Picks Up Tab ~ [Good News Network] :: A waitress who did a good deed for a pair of firefighters was overwhelmed when they returned the favor—for her father. Instead of a bill for their breakfast, Liz Woodward brought a pair of New Jersey firefighters a thank you note—they’d just spent the night battling a blaze at a warehouse. “Your breakfast is on me today,” the note read, along with little drawings of a fire ax and helmet. “Thank you for all that you do.” Firefighter Tim Young posted the story and a photo of the note to Facebook, urging people to eat at the diner where she worked. Then, he found out the waitress had a GoFundMe page, which she was using to try and raise $17,000 to buy her father a wheelchair accessible van. “Turns out, the young lady who gave us a free meal is really the one that could use the help,” Young wrote in another post. ::﻿

~ Good Thinking Investigates: Palmistry (Part 2) ~ :: In our last investigation, we visited a palmist in Blackpool, and were disappointed with the accuracy and the high cost of the reading that we received. Having visited our chosen palmist once, we partnered with the Merseyside Skeptics Society to find out how the palm reader would deal with clients in a genuinely serious situation. Our investigator Alice suffers from Hypermobility Syndrome (a chronic and highly-painful disability), but she responds to the palmist as she would have done prior to receiving her diagnosis. Everything Alice tells the palmist about her symptoms is true. Our investigator agreed to a £30 reading. After a little general information, the reading turned to the topic of health. :: #woo#superstition﻿

~ Jimmy Carter Says United States Is Now An 'Oligarchy With Unlimited Bribery' ~ [ThinkProgress] :: Former President Jimmy Carter believes the United States’ campaign finance system is so broken that the country is no longer a functional democracy. Appearing on the Thom Hartmann show this week, Carter said that “unlimited political bribery” is “the essence of getting the nominations for president or to elect the president.” He said the same problems are present in elections for “U.S. senators and congress members.” Carter’s comments mirror the conclusions of a Princeton University study released last year. Author Martin Gilens found that “ordinary citizens have virtually no influence over what their government does in the United States.” Meanwhile, “economic elites and interest groups, especially those representing business, have a substantial degree of influence.” Giles study, which he conducted with Northwestern’s Benjamin I. Page, found the United States was more of a system of “Economic Elite Domination” than a majoritarian democracy. :: #politics﻿

~ Former PA pastor sentenced after sexually abusing child for 10 years while HIV positive ~ [The Raw Story] :: A former Pennsylvania pastor has been sentenced to up to 15 years in state prison for sexually molesting a 9-year-old while plying the boy with drugs, WNEP reports.Norman (Ted) Faux started abusing the child at age 9 and continued to do so for years, even though Faux was HIV-positive, according to reports. During most of that time, he was pastor at Lake Ariel United Methodist Church. The boy, now a young adult, told police the abuse continued up until Faux was arrested last year, according to CitizensVoice. It was discovered by his girlfriend, who checked his cell phone and found an obscene message from Faux in which he asked to perform oral sex on the victim. It happened so frequently he was unable to tell police the number of times he was abused, according to CitizensVoice. :: #atheism﻿

Read my full profile ('About') before you decide to circle me! Married, Dutch, FreeBSD Geek/Forums Mod, a(nti)theist, science lover, and stable male person. If you decide to circle me for commercial or proselytizing reasons: fuck you very much. Note: I own my posts and all comments under them. I actively delete comments from trolls and throwaway accounts (no avatar, no or few followers, nonsensical/fake profiles, etc.).

Introduction

Third-Party Source Disclaimer:

When anyone wants to debate the content of an external article that I post, don't assume it is written by me, or that I necessarily agree with it. I post a wide variety of articles of interest to atheists, secularists, and progressives. If those were all exemplary of my own opinions I'd be a raving schizophrenic.. External articles are always posted in the form of:

Headline [source] :: quote or summary ::

Anything before or after that would be a personal comment. My own opinions and ideas look like regular Google+ posts.

If you're interested in rationality, science, atheism (the disbelief in gods), anti-theism (the position that belief in deities is actually harmful), anti-religionism (the position that all supernatural/irrational/spiritual belief systems are actually harmful), skepticism (within reason, some issues are beyond questioning by now), secularism (freedom of and from religion, church/state separation), social/political activism, and social progress: by all means, be my guest.

Me:

I'm informed, educated, and old enough by now to know what view of society I feel most comfortable with. You will need empirical evidence and solid reasoning to convince me of the contrary. I'm a typical European secular and rational left-winger. I don't hide that. I tend to share a lot of information and ideas about the "Circle Me" topics, and I welcome constructive comments.

Welcome.

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“There is no polite way to suggest to someone that they have devoted their life to a folly.”